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The effects of anxiety in children
The world is a complex and sometimes confusing place, so children can, quite naturally, actually feel a little anxious every now and then. These periods of anxiety in children are generally self-contained and pass quickly, causing no lasting problems. However, there are some children who find they are routinely plagued by anxiety and panic.
Anxiety affects the child physically in a wide array of ways. Common signs of panic and anxiety include stomach pains, turmoil, sleep problems, or lack of breath.
Panic or anxiety in children can come on as a result of a good number of things, including sibling rivalry, bullying, homework, or playground fights. When a child experiences worry, stress or shyness as a result of panic or anxiety, it can impact their life in a potentially unfavourable way. Avoidance of social situations can be common. For instance, if they are bullied, they could become panicked at the idea of going to school.
Children could have trouble sleeping, become moody, exhibit a lack of concentration at school, neglect social events and even try drug use if the situation just isn’t addressed early enough. It is best to catch anxiety in children fast so that it does not result in lifelong problems or issues that go on to influence their adult life.
What is anxiety in children
Anxiety is defined as long term stress and can affect the sufferer psychologically, emotionally and physically, and frequently all three. Negative presumptions of future events can cause big problems in children and the way these negative thinking styles are setup may vary hugely. Children do not have as much control over their lives as adults, so they are likely to become anxious when confronting a scenario that is beyond their control.
When a child is experiencing anxiety attacks, it is likely that the behaviours will be brought on as a result of the beliefs held at a subconscious level, which is where hypnotherapy strategies come into play. Hypnotherapeutic treatments can be particularly effective, because it allows them to contend with these subconscious ideas, making use of their most powerful asset – imagination.
Just what is the best way to resolve anxiety in children?
Some children have trouble explaining how they are feeling, and sometimes they just simply don’t know what the feeling is. The hypnotherapist should try to look at the problems in their life from the child’s standpoint. Kids are more open to hypnotherapy than adults since they will be more likely to enjoy daydreaming than grownups, and have active imaginations. A child can, from time to time, be in a deep hypnotherapeutic state of relaxation within minutes, whereas some adults can take considerably longer to reach a similar state. Like role play, children can use hypnotherapy to let go of their troubles and let their imagination run riot. They utilise the hypnotherapeutic state to visualise and create imagery of their difficulties.
As a starting point, once the requirements of consent have been handled, the hypnotherapist would seek to pinpoint the situations and circumstances which make the child genuinely feel anxious. Having established the causes, they can be addressed by the implementation of some simple hypnotherapeutic techniques, which will probably help the child set up some new suitable beliefs.
Paul White, from The Surrey Institute of Clinical Hypnotherapy, based in Surrey, explained why, in their view, hypnotherapy solutions are extremely effective in dealing with anxiety in children. “Once children understand that their thoughts and feelings are different and that their thoughts can influence their feelings, the therapeutic process has started”.
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